AuraCaught

Legal & Taxation viewpoint A proprietor can charge whatever they like. So if a menu says a service charge is levied @ say 12.5% for tables of six or more persons, then a customer is generally bound to pay that sum. If a service charge is added to a bill in other circumstances, i.e. not warned in advance, the customer has the right not to pay. However, if s/he does, the money is legally paid to the proprietor, who can choose to pay some, none, or all of it to the staff. Any sum paid to the staff is subject to deduction of income tax and national insurance contributions, before it is paid to those staff. If the sum is paid in cash & the staff have an agreement between them to pool sums and divide them between themselves, (known as a tronc system) one individual member of staff (Tronc Master)must ensure that each persons' share is paid after tax & NICs. If cash is simply given to a member of staff by a customer, the assumption is that it is given because the customer is pleased with good service, and therefore the waiter has received the sum because of his / her employment and as such that person should declare, at the end of the tax year, all such sums recieved so HMRC can charge tax & NICs on it. In practice, sums will go into the recipients' pockets and never be declared.

My partner & I went to Sainsburys in DKH yesterday. We parked in a disbled bay & I put my blue badge on the windscreen. Juat as we were getting out of the car, a taxi drove into the disabled space next to us. The middle aged driver got out, he had no blue badge. I asked him why he had parked in the space, given that he wasn't disabled. His response was "Because I want to". When we got into the shop, we reported him at Customer Services. When we had finished shopping, my partner went to the car, whilst I went to collect the bagfull of medication I need from the pharmacy. When I got back to the car, my partner told me that the cabbie had been ticketed & that he had to told him that we had reported him. He was, of course, not too happy. He questioned why I was entitled to a blue badge, which my partner refused to answer, as it was none of his business. Another lady joined the conversation, saying that she too was fed up with non Blue Badgers parking in disabled spaces and like me was fed up with having to justify to others her right to a BB as her disablity, like mine, is not immediately evident. Additionally, on most trains there are designated seats for disabled people. I often have to ask to be given one, much to the evident annoyance of people sitting in them. It is embarrassing for me to have to ask. In some European countries, disabled people are issued with badges or armbands, so other people know. I have even considered buying a walking stick, which I don't need, just so other people will make some allowance for me. Basically, I'm just asking people to be understanding, the parking bays and seats on trains are there for a reason. Looking at the individuals who have the need to use them may not always answer the question why they have that need. However, to stand on a packed train, having already let a few go through as they were too packed, and explain why I have that need is both humiliating and upsetting.

I'm glad to say that the three counter-petitions have 113 signatures >:D

My barber, Sean from Barry Road Barbers (excellent barbers BTW), says that a lady calls at his shop every now and then and takes the hair sweepings from the floor. She puts them in old tights and attaches them to various places in her garden. She swears that this keeps her garden fox free! NB Apparently it has to be male hair cuttings not female.... don't ask me why tho...

I will say nothing, but will attach the following, which I signed months ago. http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/thatchfuneral/

Can I ask where you play please?

OK after many failed attempts I couldn't work out how to attach a map, but these instructions will get you from Lordship Lane to the A3. However, they cut out all the bad traffic at Herne Hill, Clapham & Wandsworth. Having lived in Tooting for 20 years, unless you are travelling in the night, this really is the quickest way. You're on your own from the A3 onwards. Good Luck! 1. Head southeast on A2216/Lordship Ln toward Eynella Rd 115 ft 2. Turn right at Eynella Rd 0.2 mi 3. Turn right at Ct Ln 0.4 mi 4. Turn left at Carlton Ave 105 ft 5. Continue on Turney Rd 0.5 mi 6. Turn right at A2199/Croxted Rd 0.2 mi 7. Turn left at Guernsey Grove 0.1 mi 8. Turn right at Rosendale Rd 351 ft 9. Turn left at A215/Norwood Rd 0.2 mi 10. Turn right at Trinity Rise 0.3 mi 11. Continue on Upper Tulse Hill 0.3 mi 12. Turn left at Roupell Rd 0.2 mi (you cut across the Sth Circ here, cutting off the top of Brixton Hill) 13. Turn right at Palace Rd 246 ft 14. Turn left at Daysbrook Rd 0.1 mi 15. Turn right at Wavertree Rd 0.1 mi 16. Turn left at A23/Streatham Hill Continue to follow A23 0.3 mi (past Streatham Hill Station) 17. Slight left at A23/Streatham High Rd 0.2 mi ( just follow A23, until the first available right, as below) 18. Turn right at Mount Ephraim Rd 0.3 mi (v bad speed bumps here) 19. Turn left at Woodfield Ave 0.2 mi (at bottom of Woodfield Ave turn left onto Bedford Hill and at the traffic lights at the end of the road, turn right into Tooting Bec Road as per 22 below)) 20. Continue on B242/Bedford Hill 0.4 mi 21. Turn left toward A214/Tooting Bec Rd 0.3 mi 22. Turn right at A214/Tooting Bec Rd 0.2 mi 23. Turn left at Franciscan Rd 0.3 mi 24. Turn right at Derinton Rd 0.3 mi - At bottom of Derinton Road turn left, then immediately right into Ansell Rd (26 below) 25. Turn left at A24/Upper Tooting Rd 92 ft 26. Turn right at Ansell Rd 0.1 mi 27. Turn right at Fishponds Rd 0.1 mi 28. Turn left at Beechcroft Rd 0.6 mi 29. At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto B229/Burntwood Ln 0.2 mi 30. Turn right at Ellerton Rd 0.4 mi 31. Turn right at Magdalen Rd 0.2 mi 32. Turn left at Heathfield Rd 0.4 mi (go past Wandsworth Prison here) 33. Turn left at B234/Earlsfield Rd 0.2 mi 34. At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto St Ann's Hill 417 ft 35. Continue straight to stay on St Ann's Hill 335 ft 36. Turn left at Swaffield Rd 0.2 mi 37. Continue on Kimber Rd Go through 1 roundabout 0.4 mi 38. Turn right at A218/Merton Rd (past a pub called the Earl Spencer??) Go through 1 roundabout 0.3 mi (second exit from memory) 39. Turn left to stay on A218/Merton Rd 0.2 mi 40. Turn left at Lebanon Gardens 0.2 mi 41. Then turn right into Lebanon Road & turn left onto A3. See easy peezy! Damn how sad am I?

I can do it, by cutting out both Clapham & Wandsworth, all via back streets. I will try to see if I can plan the route on a map for you and put it on here. We went to Runnymede at the weekend, via Twickenham, if you're prepared to weave n wind, it's a breeze!

Not exactly claims to fame.... but brushes with fame.... 1- Sat next to Bjorn from ABBA on a 15 hour flight... 2- A friend of mine got "the" Tom Jones to sign my birthday card in a restaurant, incidentally my father's name was "Tom Jones" 3 - When i was five, I got trapped in a revolving door, with a dog on a lead and the person coming towards me, who happened to be the Prime Minister of the time, Harold Wilson.

As a Blue Badge holder, I become infuriated by the number of cars which are allowed to get away with using Disabled spaces but do not show any badge. Is there any chance that immediate action could be taken? Call a clamper? Parents in Chelsea tractors seem to think that it is their right to park in a Disabled space if the mother and child spaces are full, it is not.

I haven't received one either. I'd be interested to know whether the envelopes are franked or stamped, i.e. whether the BNP had to pay or whether the BNP now qualifies for a mailshot due to the level of support it got in previous elections. However, I did find this: http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=4041

tiger ranks Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > all goverment officials are dodgy and they all > take backhanders its the goverment way its been > going on for years and it will never stop I'm not!

On 28 August last year I had to get to Guy's Hospital by 9.30 am. I managed to get myself to PR station, but became very agitated on the platform and to my astonishment and that of the people around me I became very distressed and simply sat on a seat and wept. Everyone ignored me, except one blonde lady (late 20s perhaps?). She helped me on to the train and ensured that I got to London Bridge, talking to me all the time and easing my distress. I know I must have looked like the nutter on the train as I was carrying a white towel (I was feeling very ill) and a red T shirt that was far too big for me. If that lady reads this forum, I would like to give her my utter thanks for helping me that day. I was only minutes away from complete collapse (I was rushed straight to A&E in St Thomas' on arrival at Guy's and underwent brain surgery 2 days later). Many many thanks